Diversity and the Mass Media

The question of weather the media’s role in establishing racial and ethnic equality is not only very easy to answer but needs to be answered. People need to think of how important it is. People tend to under estimate this power and hate to admit that the media shapes our opinions about people. Most of us will not stand the idea that we stereotype and classify people, let alone that we do that involuntary based mainly on the media.

The media’s bias in America hasn’t taken any specific direction in the con direction. It has just cared always about being pro white. Most of the different major minorities in the US have somehow been attacked at some point by the media. I can’t think of an ethnic group that escaped that suppression. African Americans, Latinos, Arabs, Italians, Russians and lately the Chinese. Perhaps the only group that somehow ended up with a good positive image are the oriental people, however I don’t see the origin of this stereotype originating from the media. That positive image is a sort of thing that goes around people seeing a lot of oriental people in nice cars, successful at jobs and school. Sure, the media have set a stereotype that each and every one of them is a martial art master, but still I think most of the real positive image is from the daily life not the mass media.

Perhaps as an Arab, I can totally relate to what Shaheen has written in his article about the media’s image of Arabs. Not only was I furious when I saw Arabs portrayed in movies as primitive, camel riding nomads, but I had always asked my self why? Although Shaheen is from the small minority Christian Arabs, his comments are valid for all Arabs. Arabs have never been treated fairly in the media

Lationos,

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